CAREER: Understanding Directionally Templated Interphase Processing-Structure Development and Relationships in Polymer Nano-Composite Materials

这笔学院早期职业发展(CALEAR)补助金为开发一种新的制造工艺提供资金，该工艺将用于定制纳米复合材料中的聚合物分子结构。本研究的主要目标是将纳米模板法应用于聚合物基纳米复合材料加工的广阔领域，以解决刚性纳米体对柔性分子的取向问题。为了理解模板化如何以及为什么发生的关键科学问题，本研究的实验平台将专注于理解与纳米材料在聚合物中诱导模板化结构相关的基本机制。通过模板工艺控制复合材料中的聚合物分子排列和形状也将有助于使用自上而下的加工方法在最终材料中实现多尺度结构配准。这是一个在材料结构-性能关系很关键的领域需要解决的问题。如果成功，这项研究的结果将导致新的加工方法，可以用来控制材料的结构发展，以便调整其性能。这些结果还将有助于理解刚性纳米体作为柔性分子模板的作用，以便在材料设计中影响大分子的结构控制。这种加工方法将影响许多工业领域的材料发展，包括交通、医疗保健、航空、航空航天、结构建材、制药，甚至体育器材。它还将使使用普通(即更便宜)以及更复杂的成分制造设计师材料成为可能，这些成分提供了一系列新的更负担得起的材料，这反过来将促进新技术更快地纳入许多应用。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant provides funding for the development of a new manufacturing process that will be used to tailor polymer molecular architectures in nano-composite materials. The primary goal of this research is to apply a nano-scale templating method to the broad field of polymer-based nano-composite materials processing in order to solve key issues regarding alignment of flexible molecules by rigid nano-bodies. To understand the key scientific questions regarding how and why templating occurs, the experimental platforms of this research will focus on understanding the fundamental mechanisms associated with inducing templated structures in polymers by the nano-materials. Control of the polymer molecular alignment and shape in the composite by templating processes will also provide insight toward achieving multi-scale structural registry in the final material using a top-down processing approach. This is an issue that needs to be addressed in many fields where the material structure-property relationship is key.If successful, the results of this research will lead to new processing approaches that can be used to control structural development in materials in order to tailor its performance. These results will also provide understanding about role of rigid nano-bodies as templates for flexible molecules in order to affect architectural control of macromolecules for materials design. This processing approach will affect materials development in many industrial areas including transportation, health care, aviation, aerospace, structural building materials, pharmaceuticals, and even sporting equipment. It will also enable fabrication of designer materials using common (i.e., cheaper) as well as more sophisticated constituents providing a new array of more affordable materials, which will in turn facilitate new technologies to be incorporated into many applications at a swifter pace.